# Six months alone, and the kangaroos ate the pizza

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-six-month-solitary-retreat-kangaroo-pizza
- Themes: solitude, contentment, animals, humour, retreat
- Life situations: living alone, taking a break, retreats

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Sometime between 2000 and 2008 his year's sabbatical shrank to six months. Instead of touring, he stayed in a hut in the Serpentine forest without seeing or speaking to anyone. Each morning about 10:30 a monk left his bowl of food in a box — 'Monk Eats' — and the monks knew he was alive because the food was eaten. The kangaroos soon found out: if he left his bowl on the veranda for a moment he'd find a kangaroo with its head in it. He moved his meals inside; they watched him through the window. He tried leaving healthy carrots out, but what they loved was pizza.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

I spent six months without seeing any human being, without talking to anybody else. What had happened was, I was supposed to have a sabbatical, a year off, but then it, one thing led to another, I can only have six months off, so you go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go for six months? I could go touring here, visiting this monastery or that monastery, but I said, "No." Why do people always have to seek for happiness somewhere else? Why can't I find that happiness right where I am in that monastery where I worked so hard to build it up? So I said, “No, I'm not going to seek for happiness contentment anywhere else,” I could go wherever I wanted to, but I decided to find the best happiness and truth and freedom and wisdom right here. So I had a hut in the forest in Serpentine and I stayed there for six months, never went anywhere except deeper and deeper inside.. And it was arranged that we had a box…, actually where's that box now? The box which…, I think it's over… Okay, still is there somewhere, anyway, we had a little box there, and in the morning, at a certain time, about 10:30, one of the monks would actually put my bowl with food in the box, and I'd know the time they were coming, so I knew to be in my hut, and afterwards I will go to the box, open it up, eat the food, and then wash the bowl, put it in the box there for the next day. So I never, it's much better than Uber Eats, it was “Monk Eats". I never got charged, I never saw anybody. So there I was, and they knew I was alive because they see my bowl, and the food was eaten, so and it could have been the Kangaroos, I suppose, eating the food, but no it was me, although sometimes, those kangaroos…, you know, that they're really really really smart, and they soon found out that I was, you know, in that hut, and sometimes you'd leave your food outside on the veranda, it's a walking path, and leave the bowl there just for a few minutes to go inside to get something 'cause I liked eating on the veranda at first, and you know what happened? You find a kangaroo with it's head inside my bowl, (laughs) taking the first choice of food before I ever got to it! And so I from that time I decided to, to eat inside my hut, and so even inside, but, you know, the window was open and the kangaroo will come up onto my path, and look at me through the window, and ahh… a poor kangaroo, so you know, you felt sort of some compassion for this poor.. They had plenty of grass, but then, I started by putting some healthy food outside, I remember, like a carrot, or some…, but you know, they weren't interested in that, you know the food they liked the most when I was on retreat? Pizza! Honest! (laughter) Like…, it was, I don’t know if it's healthy for them, but, you know, that's what the Kangaroos decided they wanted to eat, see a little kangaroo with a little pizza in their mouth, they loved that

## Teaching point

Happiness needn't be sought elsewhere; he could be at peace alone because he was his own best friend.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Six months alone in a forest hut, his only visitors were kangaroos, who ignored the carrots and stuck their heads in his bowl for pizza. Ajahn Brahm loved it. Solitude needn't be lonely if you're good company for yourself. Try some quiet time alone; you may enjoy who you find, and the neighbours.

## Source

- [How to Be Happy in Solitude | Ajahn Brahm | 1 February 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e-XqXPvmFo) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:29 to 5:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e-XqXPvmFo&t=89s

Other tellings of this story:

- [The Happiest Years of Your Life | Ajahn Brahm | 17 April 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3I_zAh512k) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 7:30 to 10:04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3I_zAh512k&t=450s
- [Peace at Christmas Time | Ajahn Brahm | 18 Dec 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNcxuDhkHU) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 17:15 to 17:29: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNcxuDhkHU&t=1035s
- [Six Months of Bliss | Ajahn Brahm | 28 June 2002](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he2DluCRWBw) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:27 to 2:27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he2DluCRWBw&t=87s
- [独りでも幸せでいる方法 ｜ アジャン・ブラム （Ajahn Brahm）2019年2月1日](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiYMe5A0CHs) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 4:58 to 5:47: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiYMe5A0CHs&t=298s